Today's enterprise local area networks (LANs), however, are usually provided by multiple network device vendors. Each vendor has its own way of configuring its network devices. For example, each vendor typically provides its own set of command-line interface (CLI) commands, graphic user interface (GUI), etc. This increases the burden of IT professionals in the enterprise due to the specialized knowledge required for configuring network devices from different vendors. The enterprise LAN includes both wired networks and wireless networks, such as those in compliance with IEEE 802.11 standards.
Also, many vendors provide their own wizard for the network administrators to click through in order to configure a network device or product. The wizard interface varies greatly from vendor to vendor as well. Thus, network administrators must use different wizard to configure network devices and/or products from different network vendors. Moreover, the functional and the syntax differences among different network vendors make device configurations a difficult task. Even if the devices are configured the same way, because they are from different vendors, the manner they are configured can be drastically different.